Mushkin Bargain Bin PSUs, terrible!

Mushkin has a tuesday Bargain Bin these days with some pretty seriously low prices, $20 for 650w PSUs, $35 for 128gb SSDs, that sort of thing.
The downside? 30 day warranty.

I bought two 650w PSUs, tested one and it worked fine, the other I got lazy (uhoh) and did not test.
Last night I decided to test it, so I plugged it into my main box with the intention of doing some light benching, it fired right up, then while in bios it went ZZZOT, gave a blue flash out the back, and was dead as a doornail.

I unplugged and opened it up, and A) the soldering is lousy, B) they didn't wash the flux off after soldering, and C) it's been stored in a wet warehouse! Corrosion everywhere! It's no wonder it failed. So much for giving that to my friend!

I then opened the first one, which worked, and found it to have marginally better soldering, a bit less flux, and plenty of corrosion there, too.
So much for that gift!
Just for giggles I tried to put it into their online RMA form and the form denies the very existence of such a PSU!
Worse, today I checked the bargain bin and found another stack of the same PSUs being sold, so how you're supposed to get warranty service on them is beyond me.
I'm now out $40 (at least they were cheap!), and y'all've been warned: You get what you pay for.

Flux will cause corrosion,I doubt they were stored in a wet warehouse.Also I believe the stuff from the bargain bin doesn't qualify for regular warranty and most of the items are discontinued models,which is likely why you didn't find the models listed on the RMA form. If you bought these less then 30 day ago,you should contact costumer service,but I am not sure they will help you ,since you did open the units.

Can you post some pics?

I'll take my camera to work and take some pics.

Warranty wise I'm out of luck because I waited too long.

Well that does suck Even if you're out of warranty, I say call them up and explain the situation. Won't hurt to try

Either way, you got a working 650W for $40

Sucks =/

Ok here we go, these are pics of the worse of the two units.
The other one that actually functions i'm going to use as a dedicated peltier PSU, if it chunks itself and kills a $12 pelt i don't care much
Chunking my brother's computer wouldn't be quite so good.

EDIT:
The last pic is the AC receptacle, note the partially soldered main lead. Classy!

Wow, that is even worse than I expected.

I was certainly less then impressed!
I don't know what failed on that one, the fuse is still intact. I plan to desolder it and see what is usable and what is junk.
The main cap has a tiny amount of bulging in the cap, small enough that i can almost think it's my imagination.

that is the worst soldering work ive seen in a psu.

wow that's all spot soldering wth its just globbed everywhere. you should send them those pictures. Maybe that was a returned unit that got mixed in to refurbs.

Thats some pro soldering.

My soldering is better than that and I dont even know how to solder

MAN! That is unreal! How can a company be even allowed to sell such a poor PSU! (or even make one) Looks like a 5yr old has been let loose with a soldering iron! Im actually in shock how bad that is

Honestly, it looks like that has been made to purposely wreck someones pc

Post it on their forums they have a thread for Bargain Bin with a link to the pictures, they will resolve it ASAP due to the bad publicity.

Hey now that's a good plan, thanks!

Used to be that Mushkin was a top-notch company. They had the best RAM around and amazing support. I browsed through their forums just now and I'm sort of unimpressed - seems they've fallen behind. Bummer.

Mushkin was awesome around the time that OCZ seemed like a crappy knockoff brand that wouldn't last long.

updawg said:

Post it on their forums they have a thread for Bargain Bin with a link to the pictures, they will resolve it ASAP due to the bad publicity.

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Not likely... Most suppliers of low quality products know full well that their products are inferior. They use marketing hype to sell the stuff. When fanbois latch onto a brand it's tough for them to let go even when their beliefs are not supported in reality. This is how a lot of PC junk is sold to gullible consumers - regardless of brand. If you actually knew... you'd be amazed.

I almost bought a Mushkin years ago before I found out how great Corsair is....

madhatter256 said:

I almost bought a Mushkin years ago before I found out how great Corsair is....

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+1 for Corsair

Everything I've had from Corsair has been top notch (RAM and PSU).